


Look to the Ant

by ButterflyGhost



Category: due South
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Grief/Mourning, back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-01
Updated: 2013-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-27 18:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/665322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterflyGhost/pseuds/ButterflyGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martha watches Benton, Benton watches ants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Look to the Ant

Martha peered through her glasses at Benton.  _Very solemn, that child. Doesn't talk much. Doesn't smile._  
  
  
Benton lay on his belly, staring at the ground.  _What is he looking at?_  She barely made out a line of ants. The boy was transfixed, big-eyed and open-mouthed. She returned to cooking. An hour later he was still watching the ants.  
  
  
 _He can be awed by the natural world. That's good. And I've been given his proverb for today: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.”_  
  
  
She walked up to him, stooped, and put her hand on his hair.  
  
  
“Dinnertime, Benton.”  
  
  
Unsmiling, he got to his feet.  
  
  
George arrived just as she was plating up.   
  
  
She let Benton say grace. There was no sense that he meant it. George served; potatoes, cabbage and pork. No gravy. She always forgot something. Benton put food into his mouth, mute.  
  
  
He reminded her, uncomfortably, of Tiberius at that age, wrapped up in worlds of his own.  
  
  
 _No... poor boy is simply grieving his mother._  
  
  
Dinner over, Benton cleared the table. “Tell me about the ants,” she said, as he stood on the stool to fill the sink. He froze, then carried on cleaning.  
  
  
“When you watched them, what did you learn?”  
  
  
“If one of them is ill the others carry him. They carry big things. They like sugar.”  
  
  
 _So you’re the little mouse who's been stealing the sugar._ No wonder the ants marched in his direction.  
  
  
“Would you like a book about them?”  
  
  
“Yes,” he said, reluctantly. “Thank you kindly.”  
  
  
“Anything you don't understand, ask me or your Grandfather.”  
  
  
“Yes Grandmother, I will.”  
  
  
He looked at her then, and to her surprise, almost smiled. Not much of a smile, but still – the first glimmer of light on a winter's day.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for dS snippets


End file.
